KUOW: More women come forward with Meinert accusations

Six more women have come forward with stories of sexual misconduct and assault against Seattle nightlife entrepreneur David Meinert. They include a musician, a journalist, and a woman working with the public relations and crisis communications firm Meinert hired to try to control the brewing storm around him.

Six more women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against David Meinert, the Seattle nightlife entrepreneur. These women contacted KUOW after reading an earlier story about Meinert, in which five other women had accused him of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault and rape. The addition of these women’s stories makes 11 accusers total. They span the years 2001 to 2015.

Last week, CHS reported on Meinert’s former Pike/Pine business partners buying him out of his Capitol Hill ventures including Lost Lake and the Comet. While Meinert has been removed as an owner on Capitol Hill, his money may still be involved in area businesses. Via Tribunali, one company CHS contacted during our reporting, told CHS it had also acted to distance itself from the 52-year-old. “I can confirm that David Meinert was separated from Via Tribunali immediately following the allegations against him,” owner Mike McConnell told CHS. “He is no longer a passive investor in any of our businesses.”

Meinert does not face criminal charges in any of the allegations. Some of the women who came forward in the latest report from KUOW said they were moved to stand with the first accusers as Meinert denied the specific allegations of rape and sexual assault. It is unlikely the most serious allegations will ever be heard in a criminal prosecution — the statute of limitations for sexual assault in Washington is three years if not reported to police within one year of the incident. Efforts to change parts of the system like that might be the next chapter as the victims and Meinert’s former associates look to move forward.

Take a cue from the KUOW story and use the term “alleged victims” not victims. These kinds of distinctions are important for news sources such as your own to maintain in order to retain some objectivity.. You are not saying, “Dave Meinert, rapist” because he is only accused, not convicted or found liable. Try to be consistent.

So I guess some of the people that dismissed the first story because the accusers chose to remain anonymous will have to find a new angle to dismiss the accusations.

I’d also be curious to hear from the “innocent until proven guilty” brigade from the previous articles. We had an initial story, admissions from Meinert to much of the behavior, and now additional on-the-record stories and corroborations of their sides in a follow-up.

Can the court of public opinion make an official ruling that this is possibly maybe not a really nice guy, or do we still need wait for a criminal trial?

FFS why do people keep saying the other women were anonymous?! Do you NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE TO PUBLICLY RELEASE THEIR NAMES! They are not anonymous! Their names are known to the journalist who interviewed them and other entities involved (in at least one case, the police). Just because their names are not known to the public, the rapist’s friends and apologists, and the trolls commenting on this story on every forum DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE ANONYMOUS.

The more women come forward, the angrier I get. People in bed with this guy (his business associates) knew what sick pig this guy is and didn’t care. Now they pretend to care because they don’t want their businesses to fail. How is it even verifiable that DM IS no longer involved financially in their business(es)?

And I agree with PDX. When the drunk hit and run driver who physically assaults people is the so-called “good guy” in this story, shit is BAD.

I don’t know if it’s a meaningless distinction, but I simultaneously think he’s “presumed innocent” even though for me he’s “believed” guilty. It’s just an acknowledgement that our legal system considers him presumed innocent until proven. That’s why I totally understand people referring to “alleged victims” even though I don’t for a minute doubt any of these women. We just don’t try people by public opinion (or lynch mobs) and sometimes it just sucks when it means referring to “alleged” victims even if nobody doubts the more.

Accuser would also work. Accused and accuser. But apparently they prefer to use the term victim here at the Blog, which presumes a crime has been committed even if no civil or criminal court has weighed in. Why? Beats me.

I have no problem with the term alleged. I have a problem with trolls (mostly on the Stranger site and Privilege here using the term “anonymous.” His alleged accusers are not anonymous.

Also, in cases of rape there is typically little to no justice handed out, ever, to the alleged victims. It is the only crime where the victim is treated worse than alleged criminal. And as for WA state? It has 2 statutes of limitations for rape (based on degree) one is 3 years and one is 10 years. Since most of these alleged incidents happened between 2001 and 2015, it’s unlikely any of them will see any time in court. I mean, the police couldn’t even be bothered to show up and take the report from the one woman willing to go to the police.

We live in a society in which people (mostly women, but also vulnerable young men, gay men, and other men too) are sexually harassed, abused, and raped on a daily basis. We also live in a society in which those things are considered no big deal or the victim’s fault, or not provable in a court of law (unless the victim is violently attacked and left bruised, bloody and scarred with semen all over them; submits to being raped again during a physical exam and questioning by police being required to detail everything that happened, and then being raped a third time – at the very least – in court.

Every single day children (male and female), women and men are sexually assaulted and raped. Very little justice is provided in courses of legal action against rapists. Semantics aside – I believe the women. I believe the first woman. I believe the second woman. I believe the third woman. I believe the fourth woman. I believe the fifth woman. I believe the sixth woman. I believe the seventh woman. I believe the eighth woman. I believe the ninth woman. I believe the tenth woman. And I believe the eleventh woman.

Men like DM choose the women (and/or people) they assault very specifically, because they want to get away with what they are doing. He got away with it for a long time. He’s not going to get away with it anymore.

For what it’s worth, I was using the “anonymous” term because that’s what people were using to dismiss the accusations; I’m well aware they’re not anonymous to the writer, the police, and to Dave Meinert.

Their choosing to remain anonymous doesn’t impact their credibility in my view, because I think Sydney Brownstone’s reporting is credible.

Only 11 accusers? Well. I think we need to withhold judgement until, hmmmm, maybe thirty more surface, right? Because these “anonymous” women just make this shit up all the time, right?

The court of public opinion wouldn’t want to ruin Dan Savage’s good friends reputation and further damage the Stragers Ad revenue, now would we?

I wonder is Savage is composing another weepy “hey everyone, poor me, my friend really is a rapist” column as we speak? Because it’s real important for a man to give his feelings about what it’s like to know an accused rapist. Especially since you have long standing financial ties to the accused rapist. Will he justify suppressing this story when Sydney attempted to publish it in the Stranger?

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